Yoga Happens Every Day—Temper Tantrums And All

Category Archives: presence

In all of my seeking
did I ever stop
to ask myself
if I could recognize
the destination
when I had finally arrived?
Or would my eyes
be blindly fixed
on the far horizon
of fulfilled desires,
receding ever farther
with each step
taken toward it?
Once I had arrived
would I be capable
of enjoying
the banquet before me,
or would my eyes
be so mercilessly claimed
by visions of what is to come
that I couldn’t smell
or taste
the holy feast
laid out so perfectly before me?
Haunted by desires,
doomed to range
the shadow lands
a hungry ghost
wandering the globe
listlessly
for some promise
of a promise
of something forgotten
long before
our great grandmothers lived.
Is that any way to live?
Let me be a stand
for the freedom in ecstasy
felt by a body
uninhibited by
someone else’s stories.
Let me sing you a song
about joy and waves
of delight
standing on the edge
of eternity’s domain
and seeing something
even greater
than forever.

I search everywhere for a gift,
just something, something
so that I don’t show up
empty-handed.
Then I remember
the real gift cannot be given
or taken away.
The real gift
comes from
an inextinguishable source.
The real gift
doesn’t change hands,
it changes hearts.
We all have this gift,
and if we could really see it,
we wouldn’t
be running frantically to the store…
We’d sit in circles
of quiet joy,
the light of infinity
mirrored in one another’s eyes.

The afternoon light sparkles
on gently waving leaves.
My body wants rest; I listen.
I take a moment,
one little pause to reflect.
Who thinks these thoughts?
Who writes these words?
Who causes the leaves to dance
and the wind to blow through them?
It can be spacious, this moment,
this life.
The light keeps sparkling
and something within me
recognizes it.
All at once I realize,I’m here. I made it.

Trying to make sense of the chaos
I realize I haven’t breathed deeply
in a while so I
stop
and I take a deep breath in…I
pause
and let it out slowly.
Suddenly, there is no chaos.
Suddenly, it’s only this moment,
all it ever was,
all it ever will be.
Nothing to be added to it
nothing to be taken from it–
whole and complete just as it is.

We’re always at the beginning,
so let’s get started.
There is nothing to finish,
there is no end,
only this moment,
waiting for us to start
and start again.
And this is the beauty of it,
the spaciousness of always beginning.
There is no pressure to be a master,
no perfection to aspire towards
when perfection is all there ever is.
The imperfections are part of the perfection,
just as night is contained in day
and sadness in joy.
There is nothing you can lack;
here at the beginning
you sense the enormity
of your wide open potential
streaming from your innocent heart
beating, always now,
at the beginning.

The year winds down
but the days, little by little,
stretch longer and longer.
Spring is coming.
This is the promise
a few more minutes of daylight make
every single day.
But what if we weren’t so fixated on time?
What then?
What if we had no concept of year, season,
month, week, day, hours, minutes, seconds?
What would happen?
If we could drop the need to analyze,
understand, judge and plan,
we might have enough room to observe
the wonders as they unfold all around us.
This moment it is dark outside.
My body is tired.It must be time to sleep.
Ah now this moment
I am awakening.
I see light.
My body is hungry.It must be time to get up.
How simple this life could be
without the clutter of labels,
units, measures, definitions…
Think of an eagle soaring
or an oak growing from an acorn.
No time, always this moment.
If a course could be offered
on this kind of living,
I’d be the first to sign up!

Forget about the shopping–
give a hug, a flower, a smile,
your time.
We surround ourselves with things,
but none of it can come with us
when we leave this world.
How do you want to be remembered?
We can be distracted
in pursuit of things,
or we can be here,
open heart, open eyes,
present for our loved ones.
Sit with your beloveds,
be still and quiet,
look at them, see them,
really listen.
Your loving presence
is the most precious of presents.